Interrupted
by gingerpower
Summary: Can Percy and Annabeth EVER get a moment alone? I mean really...
1. And so it begins

It was a couple of weeks since the war. And finally, _finally_ they were together. Percy eventually got the nerve to admit his puppy love to Annabeth, and Annabeth, _at long last_ admitted her feelings for Percy. But it had taken _FOUR_ years. They had to make this extremely embarrassing. Yes, the lake was perfectly mortifying... until Percy made an air bubble. Travis sulked.

And then Travis was suddenly hit with a bolt of inspiration. Inspiration often seemed to hit Travis randomly.

Travis turned slowly to his frowning brother. A grin of fantastically evil proportions lit his face. Conner shrunk away from him in apprehension.

"Conner, dearest brother of mine." Travis said sweetly, never losing his smile. "It is time for another prank that will surpass the legendary Golden Mango." Conner's eyes widened, and then in an almost reverent voice he solemnly replied,  
"Excellent." Travis turned to the lake. _Enjoy this kiss, love birds._ He thought evilly.

"Let's get started."

"Welcome my dearest friends and colleagues." Travis said grandiosely. He spread his arms wide and bowed to the lack of applause. Katie glared at him, and Travis blushed and pouted on the inside. _Push through it Stoll,_ he commanded himself.

"Some punks have been asking for a beating; let's make this quick Stoll." Clarisse said menacingly as she crawled into the cleverly hidden cave that Conner and Travis had found their first week at Camp. Chris, turned to Clarisse and smiled like a love struck cow. Oh, wait... that's exactly what he was. Such a disappointment to Hermes.

"As you all have seen, Annabeth and our number one bro have finally gotten together." To this applause and smiles. Travis scowled at them.  
"They are so cute together, I mean really!" Some Aphrodite girl gushed. "Like, Anya and I were totally betting on how long it would take for them to get together, and we were totally - "

"_Anyway_, we, as their most trusted friends and half brother" (Malcom was in attendance) "Have the duty and honor of making their lives like Hades. No offense, Nico."

"None, taken." Chuckles to this, and then everyone turned back to Travis a gleam of unquenchable curiosity and excitement gleaming in every pair of eyes. Except Katie. She never seemed impressed by him, no matter what. Travis _tried_ to ignore that.

"What's the plan?" Malcom questioned, pulling out a huge notepad and drawing and Conner looked at each other.

"Well..."

They spent the whole night planning, arguing, and eventually rolling around with uproarious laughter. The plan was completed. Percy and Annabeth didn't have a chance.


	2. Athena's Cabin

"You know Seaweed Brain, I think that you are almost a half foot taller than me." Annabeth griped unhappily. Percy turned towards Annabeth and compared their heights. A disgustingly attractive smug smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. Annabeth had a sudden vision of ripping his shirt off and stuffing it down his throat.

"Remember when we danced, and you were shorter than me though?" She said airily, laying emphasize on the shorter part. Percy's smile drooped, and under his tan, he blushed. Annabeth smiled sweetly at him, to let him know his place, and then took his hand to hurry him along.

"Um… Annabeth, where are we going?" Percy breathed into her ear, making the hair around her neck tickle. She smiled to herself.

"Oh… I need some help with a project back at my cabin." Percy looked at Annabeth like she was insane.

"You want my help with a project?" His cute eyebrows crinkled over his ever shifting green eyes, and his nose wrinkled up in adorable confusion, and his mouth bunched up, and his hair was being played with by the wind, and his skin was so tan, and he had a jaw a girl could cut your finger on, and … wow. She was staring. Shoot.

"What?" Percy said self consciously, tugging at his perfect-without-trying hair behind his ear. Annabeth blushed and cursed herself, but being a daughter of Athena, it was easy to come up with a plan to save herself.

"I never noticed how lopsided your face is." Percy looked a little hurt, and Annabeth regretted her words instantly.

"Well maybe if I didn't have to save your butt all the time my beautiful face wouldn't take such a pounding." He said sarcastically, daintily stroking his cheekbones. Annabeth felt all remorse evaporate instantly, and the usual 'Percy is such an idiot" feeling welled up inside of her. Along with a desire to grab his face and kiss those remarkably good looking cheekbones.

"So what is this project anyway?" Percy said casually, while taking her hand again. Annabeth ducked her head so Percy wouldn't see her smile.

"Oh you know… just an experiment." She said cryptically. Percy's face was still a little red from holding Annabeth's hand. Silly boy. Would he ever man up and do something daring? Gah. But that was all fine with Annabeth, because she was about to take matters into her own hands.

Travis and Conner turned to each other.

"Time to paint."

**3rd person POV from random grumpy harpy.**

"Filthy stinking half-bloods. Why if Master Dionysus wasn't here I'd slice every one of their necks and feast on their still warm flesh." The little harpy mutters under her breath as she flutters and bobs around. The brat children sneer at her and make condescending comments like, "The food was great!" and "Thank you!" How dare they. How dare they think that this makes her feel good inside. They had no idea how long she slaved over the brats' food.

She picks up the dishes drops them in the bubbling lava. If only she could drop their still screaming heads into here. She cackles to no one in particular, and the stupid lazy boy that does nothing gives her a funny look. She bears her teeth at him, hoping to strike fear into his heart, but he merely gins. If the horse man had not just walked up, she would have clawed his sleepy eyes out and feasted on them with a garlic and lemon reduction sauce.

"Ms. Wennel," Chiron says in false politeness. "If you could please go to Athena's Cabin, the Stoll brothers have added a few murals to the walls. We would ask someone else, but they could never dream of cleaning as well as you. " She turns away in disgust. The fool. Harpies are better than any centaur that prances the earth. Why her ancestors fed on the rare centaur steak every night. Centaurs cowered in their fields praying that the harpies would not attack in the good old days.

Chiron is still there. If it weren't for her aching joints, she would have his tail for a wig. Ms. Wennel takes off her fire resisting gloves, and tries to clip the Clovis boy on the head with her wing. He doesn't even notice.

"Mark my words. One day the walking bag of flesh will fall into the lava, and that will be the end of him. Oh yes." She cackles again at the thought of feasting on his entrails.

She flutters and over to cabin six and gets to work, spewing insults and death threats at any little fool that comes near her.

"Those brats don't know what's..." she trailed off. Someone was in Athena's cabin. Oh my. Excellent, excellent. She'll be sure to tell Master Dionysus... no one was allowed in there, yes, yes! And then they'll be turned into some horrible shrubbery. She snorted quietly with laughter. Now who were these...

"Percy Jackson." Ms. Wennel grinned showing off her cracked teeth. "And the grey eyed devil." She hissed quietly upon seeing Annabeth. She leaned closer to the glass wondering what the little kiddies were doing without supervision. Upon looking closer, her lip curled in disgust.

"Little babies sucking face." She clucked. "Tell Horse Man and Master, Ms. Wennel will." She flew off happily.

"The harpy reacted just as planned, over." Nico muttered into a walkie- talkie. A few seconds of static and then a pleased Travis said,

"Excellent."

**Third Person POV of Percy**

Wow. That's all he could think as he made out with Annabeth. Wow. He just loved -

"Percy Jackson!" Chiron exclaimed. Percy yelped in terror, and fell on the floor in fear. Annabeth was straightening her now tangled blond curls and glaring at the wide eyed Percy. Her blistering scowl suggested this was all his fault and that this was the one and only time they would ever make out. But, Percy knew her well enough to know that she was just putting on and act for Chiron.

"...Complete disregard for the morals Camp Half-Blood has stood for for over hundreds of..." Chiron was ranting. "... Have no choice but to alert Mr. D. about this blatant..." Percy had a sudden image of himself being turned into grapes, and being made into wine, and being spilled all over Mr. D's paunchy stomach. He shuddered in terror. He needed to get the Hades out of here.

Upon seeing the open door with only a crazy little harpy guarding it, he lurched to his feet. He easily rolled past Chiron, and sprinted past the elderly harpy. He looked back once and he met Annabeth's eyes. Surprisingly she smiled slightly and gave him a minuscule thumbs up. He grinned back. Wow... he thought before hightailing it to the woods.

She was definitely worth it.

Unknown to the two demigods, harpy and centaur, Malcom had placed a camera in his cabin... phase one of the plan... complete.


	3. Poseidon's Cabin

"Are you sure that Chiron won't come barging in again?" Percy asked Annabeth, worriedly. "Because, I need to be responsible... I mean..."

"Dionysus isn't going to turn you into a bush again Percy, promise." Percy sighed and shuddered at the memory. "It was horrible." He said weakly. Annabeth couldn't help but think that Percy looked like a little two year old that needed a big hug. A two year old with some big arms and nice abs. Yum.

"Your brains _are_ made of kelp, it couldn't have been that bad." She teased as she sat next to him. Annabeth ran a hand through his messy hair, and then rapped a knuckle against his brain. Percy shot a betrayed look at her.

"I think you should stop calling me that, or I will have to take some drastic measures." Annabeth raised her eyebrows and felt a slight fluttering in her stomach.

"Such as?" She said innocently, and wrapped her arms around Percy's shoulders. Percy blushed and looked down.

"Um... you know... I have a plan..." He looked up through his eyelashes at a smug Annabeth. Annabeth looked at his perfect green eyes, that looked exactly like tiny green oceans. She felt like they were pulling her in deeper.

"Leave the plans to me Seaweed Brain." She whispered, and kissed him.

"Travis, I"m really sorry man, but I couldn't get into Posiden's cabin and plant the camera, because Jake hadn't finished the waterproofing and now Percy and Annabeth are already in there." Conner looked at Travis. Travis' muttered a nasty curse, but then they lit up in excitement.

"We'll have to do it ourselves." Will, Jake, and Conner shifted uncomfortably.

"Isn't that a little dangerous..." Will muttered. "I mean... the guy can create his own hurricane."

"No pain no gain." Jake muttered.

"True, true. Who's someone that likes pain?" The four boys thought about it. And then it hit them.

"Clarisse."

"So what's in it for me? I mean you punks don't do anything for me." Clarisse eyed the length of her javelin. Conner swallowed convulsively. Conner would never admit it, but Clarisse just freaked him out. No girl should be that good at beating people up.

"Well, we could arrange some shower schedule changes, or maybe some dessert privileges..." Conner trailed off. Clarisse had gotten out her knife and was shaving down her nails with its blade.

"I need something a little more... worthwhile." She suddenly grinned. Not a particularly nice grin either. "I want you and your clone to throw Capture the Flag this Friday." Conner blanched. No, no, no. This was not worth it. Capture the Flag was the like the Olympics. It was like selling the Nobel Peace Prize to buy a child slave to do your laundry. It was just so wrong.

"If you keep on gaping at me like a gutted fish, I'll up it to your whole entire cabin, now do you want my help or not?" She rose to her feet, grabbed Conner by the shirt and glared at him. Conner's feet weren't touching the ground. This is exactly what the thugs used to do to Conner after they had found out who put glue in their precious peanut butter and pickle sandwiches.

"Okay! Okay! Travis and I will throw the game." Clarisse smiled and threw Conner to the ground. She turned, grabbed her javelin, and stalked towards Posiden's cabin. The waterproof camera swinging in her meaty fist.

"Surprise punks!" Annabeth jumped, she admits it, but Percy leaped three feet into the air, a look of complete and genuine terror on his face. Clarisse was laughing like a mad woman, snapping picture after picture and swinging her javelin around like this is what she was born to do. Percy was standing in the corner, clutching a pillow to his chest, blushing and breathing like he'd run a marathon.

When things had calmed down, Percy pointed at the open door and hisssed,

"Get out." Clarisse laughed again, walked over to one of the beds and collapsed on it. She smiled at Percy and drawled...

"I don't think I will..." Annabeth braced herself. Percy was getting that brooding look on his face. His green eyes turned three shades darker.

"Get... OUT!" Clarisse rode a wave out of the Posiden Cabin. She lay in the mud, combat jacket completely covering her face.

"Uhh... you pulled something." Annabeth barely heard her mutter. Annabeth was surprisingly spared from the onslaught of water, just like Percy; not a speck of water was on either of their orange t-shirts. Clarisse was... not. _Serves her right._ Annabeth took Percy's hand and pulled him towards the forest.

"Let's go see if..._ Rachel_ is back yet." Percy stared blankly at Annabeth. Gah, he was dense, I mean really. Annabeth rolled her eyes and pulled Percy's head down. Annabeth could practically feel his blush.

"Rachel isn't supposed to come for two weeks, her cave is EMPTY." Percy looked confused for two more seconds, before he said, "OH! I get it..." Percy trailed off. Annabeth rolled her eyes again and pushed Percy's head. They left the cabins, pushing each other. Although each camper noticed that Percy wasn't even really moving Annabeth by his pushes.

Clarisse looked up the moment Percy and Annabeth's laughter could no longer be heard.

"That freak is dead." The four boys heard her mutter as she tossed the camera to Conner's waiting hands.

"Good thing we water proofed the camera." Will muttered to Conner.


	4. Argument in the Cave

** A little more serious chapter, jut a warning! **

"Troops, we have a problem." Travis announced gravely. Everyone stared soberly at the uncharacteristically sad faces of Travis and Conner Stoll. All except Clarisse, who was glaring, Chris, who was pouting, and trying to hold Clarisse's hand, and Katie who had a disturbingly smug smile on her face.

"Annabeth and Percy have proven more resourceful and elusive than previously thought." Conner sadly presented pictures of various locations... but none with even a hint of Percy or Annabeth in them.

"The skeleton warriors that I sent to distract them have all been found in a dismembered pile of bones." Nico added sounding like he was going to become a murderer if anyone said a word to him. He toyed with his Stygian sword, and the shadows seemed to be breeding like rabbits around him.

"Nico, put that away before you summon Hades." Katie said absently. She turned to Travis. "You know, this has been fun, but I think the prank's over. There's nothing more to do."

"But... Katie... what about the plan?" Will whined. Katie rolled her eyes.

"The plan never would have worked. It's over. Let Dumb and Dumber over there come up with something of their own." Travis blushed furiously and he felt like Katie had just punched him in the gut.

"I'm not dumb." Conner fake sulked. Normally, everyone would have laughed this off... but Travis' face...

"_What_... did you say?" Travis said blankly. Katie turned around looking at Travis in surprise. Her innocently surprised face was the last straw.

"Kaite, _WHAT_ is your problem with me? Are you _seriously_ still bitter over those stupid pranks I used to play on you a _million_ years ago? Why do you always stare at me like I'm the lint from Hades' belly button mixed with Dionysus' earwax?" Everyone was sitting in complete silence. "Well I'm sorry that I'm a thief, not some stupid plant boy that blathers about world peace more than actually talking to the girl right in front of him." Katie had been pale and silent until Travis mentioned her on and off again mortal boyfriend.

"At least _he_ isn't a complete and utter_ di_ -"

"Hey, hey, hey!" Conner broke in quickly. He put himself in between Travis and Katie. But it was like he wasn't even there

"A complete and utter what, Katie? Go ahead and say it." Conner tried to ward Katie away.

"Get out of the way Conner, I have something to say to him." People were starting to sneak away, casting furtive glances back at the screaming pair. Nico quickly shadowed traveled right out of the cave. Travis swore that Clarisse was collecting money from an Aphrodite girl.

"I didn't like the idea of this prank from the very beginning, but I thought I would just go along with it, to try and become friends with you. Well look where that's gotten me!" Katie threw her hands into the air in exasperation. "I don't see what's wrong with two kids liking each other! It's like we're punishing them for being happy. I think Percy finally, finally having the guts to admit his feelings to Annabeth was the best thing that ever happened to the two." For some reason unknown to both Travis and Conner, Katie had tears in her eyes. "I don't understand why more guys can't do that." She looked directly at Travis when she said that.

For a very long moment it was silent. And then Katie wiped the tears from her cheeks and walked out of the cave.

"I'm done, you two can do whatever the heck you want." Katie's voice was cold. Travis had nothing to say. Conner did.

"Good job! She was bawling like a baby!" Conner lifted his hand to give his brother a high five.

"Conner, if you want to live to see the sun rising, you will put your hand down." Conner put his hand down, but was still congratulating him.

"Dude, you finally got her good! I'll bet she'll _never_ talk to you again!"

"ARRRRRRRHHHHH!" Travis roared and tackled his brother to the dirty cave floor. "Just, shut up! _Shut up_ for once in your life!"

"Hey man... ow! What's your deal? Stop!" Travis was strangling Conner. "She hates you; this is what you always wanted." Conner wheezed. Travis let his brother go. Conner sat up, rubbing his neck. There was a look on Travis' face he had never seen before. Almost like someone was stabbing out his still beating heart.

"Just... go raid the camp store or something." Travis muttered.

"You're not going to come with?"

"No. I'm not in the mood." Conner raised his eyebrows incredulously.

"But... that's your favorite thing -" Travis chucked his shoe at Conner.

"Alright, alright, jeez." Conner left Travis alone with his thoughts.


	5. Something's Gonna Go Down

Rachel felt the spirit of Delphi shift inside of her. She clenched her hands and silently begged for the prophecy to wait, just til she got to camp. _Please, please, please... not in the car! _

"Can you drive a little faster?" The chauffeur didn't even turn around.

"No, I'm a law abiding citizen. I'm right at the speed limit." Law abiding citizen? Psh, Rachel knew for a fact that this guy bets illegally on NFL and NBA games every year. She opened her mouth to put his jerk in his place, but it didn't matter; They were here.

She grabbed her bag.

"Well see, ya!" The chauffeur waved and grinned sarcastically, thinking he was dropping her off in the middle of no where, and loving it. Rachel narrowed her eyes at him threateningly, and let just a little bit of the oracle awesomeness leak into her eyes. Her already green eyes glowed brighter, and that guy was undoubtedly speeding now.

_Yup, I've still got it. _Rachel entered camp with a jaunty step. She waved at Thalia's tree and Peleus, both did not respond. _How rude._

She skipped over to the Big House and said her hello's.

Dionysus swore at her, and vowed to turn her into a mummy again if she woke him from another nap. She grinned at him. Rachel couldn't seem to find Chiron, but that was okay, she had a _hunch_ that they'd talk later.

Rachel wandered around, hoping to run into someone interesting. Conner practically bulldozed right into her.

"Rachel. . . thank the gods." He was breathing in gasps and his face was terrifically red. "You need to help us find Travis." Rachel raised her eyebrows at Conner and his urgency. Travis was. . . hmm, oh yes- obviously hiding in the cave that the two had found a couple of months ago.

"Follow me." Rachel announced airily, leading the way. Conner looked surprised, but followed Rachel, tripping, and wiping his profusely sweating brow. Rachel would definitely be lying if she said she didn't enjoy the whole dramatic irony of her life now-a-days.

Anyway, so Rachel led the surprising loud Conner through the forest.

"Aren't all thieves masters of stealth?" She asked getting the tiniest bit annoyed; The dryads were giving her vicious glares.

_"What?"_ Conner yelled. Rachel glared at his smirk of satisfaction as the forest sniffed in disgust.

"We're almost there and then I can get the cyclops away from _you_." Conner laughed and flicked some mud at Rachel. Rachel just raised her eyebrows at him and said causally,

"You know Conner, you're never going to get married. No woman will be able to stand you." Conner's smile faded. Rachel didn't feel an ounce of guilt.

Okay, maybe a _tiny_ bit, and Conner should know that she was lying. Gah, she can't joke around with _anyone_ can she? And now he was all pouty and quiet. _Everyone _took this Oracle thing a little too seriously.

"Conner, you know I'm joking right? I mean. . . Ares has kids right?" Conner mulled this over and shrugged, thankfully, his crooked grin had returned.

"You know, you scared me for a second Dare, I think that I"ll have to get you back for th -"

"We're here." Conner looked around for a moment and then slapped his hand against his forehead.

"Oh yeah! I remember this place. Ha! Surprised I didn't think to look for him here. . . " They entered the cave, and it took a long moment for their eyes to adjust. When they could see, there was a layer of smoke, and the air smelled like burnt plastic. Travis' was turned away from them, and all that could be seen of him was his legs and a pair of stolen scruffy Vans. A small flame flicked into existence before it clicked out again.

"Travis! Where the -"

"Travis can you stop lighting that Frisbee on fire; it's giving me a headache."

"Oh, hey Rachel." Travis did a weak attempt at his usual cunning smile.

"Travis! You're such an idiot, why are you in here?" Conner was mad. He stalked over to his brother and kicked him in the head.

"Stop, you fink." Travis hissed as he easily grabbed his brother's leg and brought him crashing to the ground. Rachel felt all control slip through her fingers as the brothers fought. It was funny in a really horrible way and it also made her want to scream and join in. Rachel had no hairbrushes on her at that moment to throw and they probably wouldn't have even noticed with all the elbows to heads, so Rachel sat back, took out a marker, and started to doodle on her pants. Roughly a good fifteen minutes later, Travis and Conner lay on the cave floor with various cuts and bruises already forming.

"I'm hungry." Conner said after a long, long moment of silence. Rachel didn't look up, but she did hear a punching noise and a surprisingly girlish squeal that she could only assume came from Conner. Rachel stretched, capped her marker, dusted off her jeans, and stood.

"Travis, I know how to help you." Travis looked up at Rachel from his vantage point on the ground. Conner glared at his brother briefly and muttered,

"The only thing my brother needs help with is pranking that harpy, Katie Gardner, and finishing the prank that we started." Rachel had a sudden very bad feeling accompany Conner's words. The spirit of Delphi squirmed inside of her.

"Um, no Travis I don't -"

"You just need to get back in your loop and then you'll feel better, I promise." Conner pledged holding up the Boy Scout sign. Something was welling up inside Rachel, almost as if she was about to have a prophecy. _Stop him._ Rachel shuddered as the Spirit whispered in its snake voice directly to her.

"Travis, trust me, this is the wrong -" But she felt weak and faint, and Conner was growing excited and _louder. _

"Dude think, with Rachel here she can totally help us locate them, they won't be able to hide!" Travis' eyes suddenly sparked to life. He smiled the tiniest smile, while Conner was grinning, like a Cheshire cat.

"Rachel, where are Percy and Annabeth?" Conner said sweetly masking a surprisingly pushy tone. Rachel, not being able to control her _hunches _saw a sudden vision of Percy and Annabeth making out in _her cave. _She blushed. _Percy._

"Uh," Rachel groaned in disgust. "Not in my cave." She murmured. Conner, had surprisingly good ears, because he leaped to his feet, pulling Travis up at the same time.

"Let's go." Travis sighed, and gave Conner a crusty smile. Rachel was suddenly desperate.

"Travis! Please don't go! Something will happen. . ." Conner rolled his eyes and called over his shoulder,

"C'mon Travis. She obviously _doesn't _want to help you." Travis looked sadly at Rachel for a long moment.

"Travis I know that you and Katie -" That was obviously the wrong thing to say. Travis' face closed off.

"Rachel, I. . . I think I need to do this." He ran after his brother.

"Travis, you flipping idiot." Rachel fumed, and followed the two brothers out of the dingy cave that still smelled like burnt plastic.


	6. Ain't No Rest for the Wicked

From that moment on, Rachel was bullied, manipulated, and finally giving up, just admitted where the two love birds were. They never had a moments peace. They could never kiss without being embarrassed and have some hilarious pictures taken of them. The plan. . . oh the glorious plan was almost coming to pass! Travis threw himself back into his work. He ignored the urge to run and hurl himself at Katie's feet whenever he felt her looking at him.

Meanwhile. . . Rachel sought the help of a god.

What had changed? Her plans were failing, and Annabeth's plans never, ever failed. . . Obviously that traitor Malcom was helping, (curse him) and obviously she had underestimated the cunning of the Stoll Brother's, but it all seemed a little too. . . _good to be true. _

_Grover. _She pushed Percy back.

"Percy, _Grover!_" Percy was sort of grinning off into space. Annabeth snapped her fingers in front of his face. He focused slowly in on her face, and got the dumbest - _and the cutest -_ smile on his face.

"Sure." He leaned in to kiss her again.

"No, Percy, Grover's the answer! His empathy link with you. He can find you. . . He leads them to us! That's why they're always there!" Annabeth thought about it, it all made sense. Grover could also get the help of Juniper and his legions of worshiping satyrs. Uh, the _traitor!_ Annabeth leaped to her feet, pulling out her knife and Yankees cap.

"We need to find him, he must be somewhere lurking about -"

"But. . . Annabeth, Grover's in. . . Ethiopia or Utopia or something like that." Percy whined, a pouty and confused frown on his face. "Can't we look for him later?" Annabeth glared at Percy, but really she just didn't like being wrong in front of the kelp brain. She sank to the ground gracefully.

"Fine, but somebody is helping them." Percy crinkled his nose.

"I didn't take you for being a conspiracy theorist. And besides what's the big idea, if they just want to give us a hard time?" Annabeth shook her head.

"Percy, this is something more. I can just feel it. They're much more to this than just a bunch of bored, romance starved Aphrodite and Hermes kids." Percy leaned back a strange expression on his face.

"Romance starved? How can you be starved of romance. . . that doesn't even make sense."_ Uh, Percy. _Annabeth rolled her eyes.

"It's a figure of speech." Percy suddenly grinned.

"But what if you could really be romance starved? And you like, had a hole in your heart, so you just walked around like a limp husk? And then you were kinda like a vampire, and you fed off of other's romance. How 'bout that?" Annabeth stared at Percy blankly.

"No."

"But -"

"Percy, no."

"Fine. You have no imagination."

"Uh! Hey! My whole entire existence is imagination." Annabeth tossed her hair back.

"No, your whole existence is just a bunch of plans." Annabeth turned to Percy sharply and hissed,

"What's wrong with that?" Percy backtracked.

"Nothing." Annabeth smirked at Percy's wide-eyed fear.

"Good." Percy took her hand. Annabeth smiled at him. For one moment, they forgot all their troubles, all their losses, all their burdens, and they were just two best friends holding hands by a secret pond in the forest.

"SMOOCHIE! SMOOCHIE!"

"Uhhhhh, not agian!"

"We're not even kissing!"

"Rachel. . . I'm not good at deception."

"You're a god!"

"Well. . . not technically, but thank you for saying that, that makes me feel -"

"If you don't help I'll tell _somebody _about your little date with. . . what's her name?"

"You wouldn't! It was a misunderstanding! Juniper. . . she'll kill me."

"So, you'll help?"

". . . Fine. . ."

Grover left, munching nervously on his tin can collection.


End file.
